* Believes Airbus has "very good case" ahead of WTO ruling
* Airbus to deliver as many planes in 2009 as in 2008
JOUY-EN-JOSAS, France, Sept 3 (Reuters) - EADS Chief Executive Louis Gallois said on Thursday he believed Airbus had a "very good case" in a transatlantic dispute over illegal aircraft subsidies.
Gallois also told Reuters on the sidelines of the Medef French business lobby group's summer conference that he expected Airbus to deliver as many planes in 2009 as in 2008.
The World Trade Organisation is due on Friday to distribute its first confidential findings to the parties involved in a dispute between the United States and the European Union over mutual complaints of illegal aircraft subsidies.
EADS subsidiary Airbus and Boeing roughly share an annual market worth some $80 billion for large passenger jets.
Earlier the Wall Street Journal reported the preliminary WTO ruling is likely to conclude European governments illegally subsidised Airbus. The newspaper cited trade officials, lawyers and executives from both sides.
(Reporting by Marie Maitre, Marie Mawad; editing by John Stonestreet)